Zub Tales

Posted by Jim Zub on June 18, 2006 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Thanks to those who have drawn cereal mascots so far. Fun stuff. I hope some more roll in over the next few days.

The weekend went pretty well. A decent mix of work and play methinks.

On one of the forums I frequent I received a private post asking me to check out an artist’s website and give critique on the work there. After a couple weeks of it on the backburner I finally wrote some thoughts down about what I saw. After I finished it I realized that most of the feedback I was typing up would be helpful for other people to see as well.

Here’s some of that feedback which applies to a lot of art student work:

The general posing and rendering is good. She’s obviously enjoying herself and the subjects she’s working on, which is a big plus and shows through in the work.

As a website of her artwork it’s decent. I’m not sure what her goals are as far as doing some of this stuff professionally. If that is a goal, then I’d recommend either a) creating a separate site with only the absolute best pieces there or b) shedding some of the older/sketchier stuff.

Almost all of the figures in these pieces are standing against blank or minimal background elements. It’s one of the first things I notice about amateur work when I’m viewing portfolios. Placing characters in environments is hard and many people just drawing for fun avoid it like the plague. Learning extensive perspective and environmental drawing isn’t easy, but it’s also one of the best ways to make your work stand out and hit new plateaus. It doesn’t mean that every piece needs to have a background, but having almost none ever looks like she’s avoiding a weak spot in her art, whether that’s the case or not.

Almost all of the artwork looks like it’s extrapolated from watching anime. Her construction and forms overall are good, but there’s a stiffness to it that I see from people who are learning to draw soley from looking at other people’s drawings. It’s like a photocopy of a photocopy. Having a preferred style is fine, but learning to observe from real life and draw all manners of subjects will create the most well-rounded set of skills and also push that style to higher levels of quality. Taking a figure drawing course, sketching more figures in action and building from more gestural forms will all add more energy and quality to her work.

I hope that’s helpful as a starting point.